I suspect not, given all the warnings that the college has around its online alumni directory (verbiage to the effect that you can’t use the addresses for commercial purposes), but I received a piece of mail today from Comcast touting its “reliable business class communications,” and it was addressed to:

Guy Creese
MANAGER
WILLIAMS COLLEGE CLASS OF 1975

This form of address is curious, because catalog mailing lists certainly don’t know that I went to Williams–or that I graduated in the Class of ’75. The only other option I can think of is that Comcast bought a mailing list from web registrars, since I am the webmaster for the Class of ’75 web site.

2 Responses to “Trying to Figure Out If Williams Is Selling Its Mailing Lists”

Larry George says:

I suspect you are right: it is from your class webmaster role. I’ve experienced a lot of abuses of the lists from my childrens’ elementary and secondary schools (easily identifiable) but none that
I’ve identified as being from the Williams list.

My wife and I have collectively attended several prominent schools as undergraduate or graduate students. We periodically receive “junk mail” solicitations for “affinity” credit cards that are branded with the names of one of those schools.

However, I don’t think I’ve received any solicitations for “Williams” branded credit cards. So my guess is that Williams is actually less likely to share their alumni lists than certain other peer schools.